Doug’s Theological Thoughts

  • Explaining the Gospel

    Father Stephen DeYoung Explains the Gospel to Gavin Ortlund The Nicene Creed Biblical Correlation

  • Those outside the Church

    Fr Stephen DeYoung explains to Gavin Ortlund how the Orthodox Church views those outside the Faith

  • What is the Church?

    Stephen DeYoung explains to Gavin Ortlund what the Church is

  • The Eucharist Explained

    Fr Jonathan Ivanoff explains the Eucharist to Pastor Tommy

  • Liturgical Worship in the Early Church

    Fr Jonathan Ivanoff explains Liturgical Worship to Pastor Tommy

  • God Hardens Those He Will

    The Epistle reading for today is ST. PAUL’S LETTER TO THE ROMANS 9:18-33 Brethren, God has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, a man, to…

  • The Protestant Dilemma (Refined)

    Protestantism affirms Sola Scriptura: Scripture alone is the sole infallible rule of faith and practice. No tradition, council, pope, or individual interpretation possesses infallible authority. All human reception, tradition, and interpretation of Scripture is fallible by definition. The Church is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim 3:15): Scripture itself declares that the…

  • Water Baptism and John 3

    Cyprian of Carthage AD 258 Since it is written, “Except a man be born again of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”. And therefore it behoves those to be baptized who come from heresy to the Church, that so they who are prepared, in the lawful, and true,…

  • Apostolic Succession

    Protestants often miss the verses which show the Apostles appointing Bishops to oversee the Churches that they founded. It’s in a few scattered verses (and implied in many others). Titus 1:5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every…

  • The Torah and Sacrifices

    There are 613 commandments (mitzvot) in the Torah, according to traditional Jewish teaching. According to Maimonides in his Sefer HaMitzvot, about 100 of the 613 commandments directly concern sacrifices (korbanot). This excludes roughly another 50 commandments related to the Temple structure, priesthood duties, and related matters (which may indirectly involve or enable sacrifices but are…

  • Actual monastic lentil soup

    Start with a sofrito of onion, carrot and celery, add toasted cumin seeds, paprika, add lentils which have already been boiled and drained, add tomatoes, cover with water. Serve with vinegar and chopped scallions, or alternatively sorrel or parsley

  • Pork?

    From grok The question of whether early Christians ate pork (or followed Jewish dietary laws prohibiting it, as in Leviticus 11:7–8 and Deuteronomy 14:8) has a nuanced answer based on the New Testament and historical evidence from the apostolic era.Key Biblical Developments Practice in the Early Church In summary, while the very earliest Jewish followers…

  • Men’s Book Club

    Our Men’s group finished Fr Andrews Stephen’s book on St Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius of Antioch (/ɪɡˈneɪʃəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἰγνάτιος Ἀντιοχείας, romanized: Ignátios Antiokheías; died c. 108/140), also known as Ignatius Theophorus (Ἰγνάτιος ὁ Θεοφόρος, Ignátios ho Theophóros, ‘the God-bearing’), was an early Christian writer and Patriarch of Antioch. While en route to Rome, where he met his martyrdom, Ignatius wrote a series of letters. This correspondence forms a central…

  • Saint Theophan the Recluse

    My Patron Saint is Theophan the Recluse. I was looking for a patron saint and went down a particular path. My first name, Douglas has various meanings but one of the common ones is “dark, moody waters.” There are no Orthodox saints with the name Douglas. I tried finding a Celtic Orthodox Saint with a…

  • Dying in Baptism

    The Apostle Paul teaches this explicitly in Romans 6:3-11: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we…

  • Dying to Join

    From Inquirer to Newly Illumined You are already convinced enough in your mind that you want to become Orthodox, but it seems like the Church/Priest are not quite sure about you. What’s up with that? Inquirer Phase A lot of Inquirers have already engaged with books like Ware’s book or one of the Evangelical Orthodox…

  • Gnostic Christianity

    The early Christian church (what became the Orthodox tradition, before the East-West schism) did oppose Gnostic groups and their teachings, labeling them as heretical. They worked to suppress Gnostic writings, and later—after Christianity gained imperial support in the 4th century—some texts were indeed banned, confiscated, and destroyed (including burning in certain cases). But the idea…

  • Neophyte in the Orthodox Church

    In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the term “neophyte” (from the Greek neophytoi, meaning “newly planted”) refers to a newly baptized and chrismated (confirmed) Christian — someone who has recently been received into the full life of the Church through the sacraments of initiation.Unlike the Roman Catholic tradition, which has a more formalized “neophyte year” (a…

  • Incense in the Church

    Yes, prior to the Reformation, the Christian Church (both in the East and West) consistently interpreted Malachi 1:11 as a literal prophecy fulfilled in Christian worship — specifically, the use of literal incense alongside the “pure offering” understood as the Eucharistic sacrifice. This understanding appears very early and remains uniform across the patristic period (roughly…

  • Perpetual Virginity of Mary

    In Eastern Orthodox theology, the perpetual virginity of Mary (that she remained a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Christ, often called “Ever-Virgin” or Aeiparthenos) is a firmly held dogma, rooted in apostolic tradition, the Church Fathers, liturgical texts, and early Christian writings like the Protoevangelium of James. The question of Joseph accepting…

  • Orthodox Calendar(s)

    There’s a weird claim out there. Excuse you actually Holy Orthodoxy and its insistence on a calendar that is literally wrong comes from St. Mehmed II, Pillar of Orthodoxy and Equal to the Apostles (pbuh) The Reality There is zero historical evidence that Mehmed II ever issued any decree, spoke, or intervened regarding the Julian…

  • Joseph Adopted Jesus

    In the New Testament, Mary was initially betrothed (engaged) to Joseph (Matthew 1:18), a legally binding commitment in first-century Jewish custom—stronger than modern engagement and requiring a formal divorce to break. When Mary was found to be pregnant (by the Holy Spirit, according to the virgin birth accounts), Joseph considered divorcing her quietly. But an…

  • Intercession of the Saints

    No early Church Father (typically defined as writers from the 1st to 5th centuries, especially ante-Nicene and Nicene eras) explicitly denied or rejected the intercession of departed saints in a clear, systematic way — that is, no major patristic figure wrote a treatise or statement outright condemning the belief that saints in heaven can pray…

  • Orthodoxy and Forgiveness

    The Eastern Orthodox Church does not generally teach unilateral forgiveness in the sense of always requiring or mandating complete, unconditional forgiveness of others without any regard to repentance — but the teaching strongly emphasizes forgiving everyone from the heart as a personal spiritual necessity, even (and especially) when the offender shows no repentance. This is…